Friday, 27 November 2015

I see this year Black Friday has split people totally down the middle. Some see awfulness, others see loveliness...and (I think seeing as I'm an online, rather than in person, shopping kinda gal) I fall on the side of Loveliness.

I LOVE how I can indulge in bunches of art supplies that normally I would consider a little too pricey or frivolous (why do I need another set of pencils when I have several sets barely touched? etc).

And I LOVE how I can get education products for things that normally I wouldn't buy just because I'm slightly interested in the topic (for instance this morning I brought a podcast class, not because I'm definitely wanting to start a podcast, just because I'm interested in the subject and would like to learn more).

I suppose what I really LOVE is the options Black Friday gives and the PERMISSION you then give yourself to allow yourself to experience new things you may not have be open to before (basically if you were paying full price - because, you know, we all love a bargain).

So in light of this I wanted to add to this feeling and offer 50% off of all of my Classes.

Want to learn how a new way to make a journal? I got you covered. Want to learn how to put more you in your journals? I got you covered. Want to experience how to connect your emotions to your art through things like symbolism? I got you covered.

Give yourself permission to have the new experience you want.

Click the image or link above to check out the classes on offer and enjoy 50% off each class

(all class are crazy prices starting at only £10 but just for this weekend only!)

I’ve never offered this huge reduction before, and to be
honest I’m not sure I’ll do it again so now is the perfect time to stock up on the classes you want.

Hope you have an awesome weekend

PS 'ALL my classes' really does mean ALL MY CLASSES, so my Brand New Journal Playdate is also included in this offer! Pretty crazy, but he'd feel lonely if I left him out =)

Friday, 20 November 2015

So last week I wrote about ‘Passion Projects' being the nearest thing I have found to that total sense of escapism through creative pursuit, which I now often miss in my every day journaling practice.

But this week I want to write about how wishing for that level of escape in my everyday creativity which I used to have every-single-time I created (or any previous stage of creative pursuit), to be back again, is utter madness.

So what do I feel now when I create:

Joy & Happiness

Excitement & Enthusiasm

Interest & Intention

Challenges & Blocks

Hiccups & Frustration

Relief & Burnout

So what did I feel then when I created:

Utter Joy & Total Lack of Thought.

So the above list of previous things I used to feel when creating looks pretty good. The current list of what I feel...well when compared to the other, not so good. But the list of feelings I have when I create now is pretty much given in order of how I project runs & this is telling in itself.

It shows how now the process is more meaty. It shows how it's actually evolved into a process.

My previous when-I-created feelings show creation happened without any process in mind occuring at all. It was just done. And that total sense of escapism into the art could only occur because a) I didn't have very much time to create, so that which I did was precious and b) I was very unhappy, dealing with grief and a bunch of other negative feelings to do with working in a soul-sucking rat race environment. Back then I thought if I was gifted with more time to create and happier life circumstances then I would be MADE UP. Well guess what? I am now living that life, and it is and isn't how I imagined it would be.

I create, create, create as I imagined I would, but not in the simple one-dimensional level I did before. This means I cannot always be completely immersed in the art because the expansion of life caused an expansion in my art. I am no longer satisfied just slapping paint down, I want there to be meaning behind it, I want to use a plethora of techniques, I want to be sharing or teaching it. So while I may occasionally crave the 'Utter Joy & Total Lack of Thought' the pursuit of art used to bring, MY CREATIVITY CRAVES MORE

...and besides, the price of being unhappy is too high a price to pay to get that again...

...it's like waiting for the relief of water when you've been running for miles on a scorching hot day, verses sitting in a comfortable room and drinking drink after drink consistently. The former is my previous life and the art was the water, but in the latter which is my life now, the thirst cannot be quenched because there is no thirst. I am in a comfortable armchair drinking drink after drink.

So while I sometimes still crave that level of complete escapism I wanted to share this important message if you ever feel the crave for an older time in your creative story to come around again. Whatever benefits there were you have more benefits now because evolution moves in the right direction. Take nature as your teacher if not me for that. It doesn't mean you're may be happy with every decision you've ever made nor that you might not want to pick up some previous habits that served you well once again. Evolution just means the natural progress of your journey, the path, the whole and where you currently are (- and without that path you wouldn't know that you 'want to pick up some previous habits that served you well' again anyway). Evolution moves in the right direction because that is the direction it has gone in.

I get emails all the time from people who feel like they've lost their mojo, or find it difficult switching from say scrapbooking to mixed media and even from people who have transferred from creating for the fun of it to doing it for extra income and all feel what I have described here: The longing for the safe, old ways of our creativity & the perplexity and/or distress by the new realities of it.

I think the answer for everyone in such a situation is to understand the essence of this:

It is just Your Creative Evolution.

You are on a Journey! Not a One Point Stop.

It Gives more than it Takes.

and

Lean into it, because it will happen anyway.

and just for fun...what was my Passion Project this week??

junk journaling...

and also making clay things as you can see from the top right.

That's all from me this week,

what have you been up to? Please share in the comments below

Have a great weekend

Much <3

PS Checked out my new class yet??? It launched this week, here are the details:

The Journal Playdate is a workshop consisting of ten video steps that are each five minutes in length or under so you can follow along then go execute, follow along then go execute. It is how I would teach you to create an art journal page WITH MEANING if I was with you. Some great pages are already being shared, come join in.

Friday, 13 November 2015

So this year I’ve really needed a lot of what I call ‘Passion Projects’. These are essentially the private projects I keep all to myself and they are essential for making my other projects, especially those where I’m delivering something to others so it has to be amazing, happen.

Passion Projects are the nearest thing I have found that draw me back to that feeling when I first started art journaling (and actually knowing what it was I was doing) on the floor of my flat in London in an attempt to escape the day to day pain and heartache I was going through. Those pages were the nearest thing I have found to that total sense of escapism through creative pursuit, which I now often miss in my every day journaling practice.

my old creative space (and the floor in front of it was where the main events happened) in my old bedroom in my London days

So once upon a time every project I had was a Passion Project, and you may be reading this thinking ‘yeah every one of my projects is a Passion Project’ and even ‘why would you create any project anyway Jennibellie if it’s not a Passion Project?’ Well it’s not that I don’t have passion for all my projects because I do (or obviously I wouldn’t be creating them) but there are a couple of reasons there is a level of passion difference to these I am calling ‘Passion Projects’.

First as I said at the beginning when you begin creating things for other people the projects begin to feel different, basically because your objectives are different. I learnt this several years ago when I first started selling my handmade journals. Those journals that went up for sale could not be like those haphazard journals I was happy to create and journal in myself. They needed to be neatly made, with clean lines, made with the correct materials and techniques and they needed to last…that is not to say I people wouldn’t have brought or wanted my own haphazard journals, because I’ve seen many a person sell all kinds of things that have a, let’s say ‘creative looseness’ to them and good on them. There is just something in me that means before anything I’ve made can go out into the world it needs to have met my own personal standards, which I’m sure you can relate to if you’ve ever made a present for someone that you really wanted them to treasure. So this level of attention to a finished product can often remove the freedom I feel in a Passion Project, which again is not to say that I don’t enjoy doing it, it just means I can’t have the total abandon that a Passion Project requires.

The second reason is to do with the escapism in the art, which I’m going to be going to be talking more about next week, as it is a whole blogpost in itself.

So how does a Passion Project help you finish your other projects? Well if you are someone who is creating a lot of things that have a lot of elements to them, or are of a large nature, or are creations to share with other people, or are items for sale…basically if you are anyone besides those creatives who are creating 100% of the time entirely for themselves (and if you are lucky you), but even if you are just someone who is making that many christmas cards stamping one more santa will drive you crackers then a Passion Project will help you in two main ways: 1) by giving you a break from your current project and 2) at the same time instilling you with creative energy to take back to that project.

A Passion Project is a project that comes COMPLETELY from the heart and one that you are so inspired by you just HAVE to do it, you simply don’t even have the choice your inspiration is just that high. Passion Projects are actually the love child of the Creative Instinct I talked about a couple of weeks ago, and while yes every project we do must have some passion in it for us to want to do it ‘Passion Projects’ are actually rarer than you may think. I estimate you to be VERY lucky if you manage to have 30% of your entire creative pursuits at Passion Project level, even if you 100% of the time creating private things for no one but yourself (the only exception I believe is when you first ‘rediscover’ your creative side and it feels like you’ll never want to do anything else but create again - and creative blocks, critics and burnout are things that happen to other people.)

So my Passion Project this week? Making Orgonites:

I’m not going to go into what Orgonites are here, as they are not just a pretty thing to be made but put in the simplest way an energy balancing tool made of organic and inorganic substances, there’s a lot of science and intricacies behind it, which is very complicated to explain to anyone totally new to it so if you want to know more please feel free to look it up on your own – Dr. Wilhelm Reich is probably the best place to start.

These are my first batch of Orgonites, which I have been researching for years before I attempted making them (as they really are that intricate and something you want to get right or you will have just wasted a lot of expensive materials). They are something that I have been excited about creating for a long time, dreaming up designs and staying awake all night with anticipation. Now I get excited about every project that comes across my path but to still be excited about creating something years after you first thought of doing it – that is a Passion Project. And every moment creating them was so absorbing hour by hour disappeared without me realising – another sign of a Passion Project.

And the project the Orgonites were helping me to create? My new Art Journal Playdate which incidentally goes live TODAY Woohoo!!

The Journal Playdate is a workshop consisting of ten video steps that are each five minutes in length or under so you can follow along then go execute, follow along then go execute. It is how I would teach you to create an art journal page WITH MEANING if I was with you.